PERSPECTIVE
Real Progress in Real-world Conditions
By Jim Barber
UPS Chief Operating Officer
With more than 119,000 delivery vehicles and hundreds of aircraft, we create a significant global footprint. And we believe we have a responsibility to reduce that impact.
As you can see in our newest Sustainability Progress Report, we're working on it. Our Rolling Laboratory, one of the industry's largest private alternative fuel and advanced technology fleets, now includes approximately 9,100 all-electric, electric hybrid, propane, CNG, and LNG vehicles that have logged over a billion miles around the world. We work with our suppliers to test alternative fuels and technologies, to see how they perform in real-world operating conditions. Then we're able to quickly deploy viable options at scale, spurring market growth for alternative solutions. This is all part of our effort to reduce absolute emissions across our global ground operations by 12 percent by 2025 – which means that even as our business grows and delivery volume increases, our overall emissions will decrease.
The Power of Collaboration
UPS is partnering with a growing number of cities, academics, and other businesses to create sustainable transport solutions. In Hamburg, for example, we worked with city officials to come up with a simple, yet creative way to address this challenge. Instead of driving a large package car through narrow city streets, UPS drivers pick up deliveries from a storage container of consolidated shipments in the center of the city. From there, we deliver packages throughout the city center, using electrically assisted tricycles. We're making fewer trips to package centers while reducing congestion and noise – and we're doing it with zero tailpipe emissions from our e-trikes.
The city minister of transport has called this program a "game-changer."
We've expanded our Hamburg e-trike model to Pittsburgh, Toronto and Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. And we're using a similar mix of technology and creative thinking in Dublin, Paris, Leuven, Belgium and London, with more cities to follow.
For decades, we've been working on sustainable logistics solutions in London. Earlier this year, we helped deploy a radical new electric vehicle charging technology which helps overcome the challenge of recharging an entire fleet of electric vehicles without an expensive upgrade to the power supply grid. This allows UPS to increase the number of electric vehicles operating from our central London site from 65 to all 170 trucks based there. This major advance was a first of its kind, and wouldn't have been possible without the partners who helped make it a reality: UK Power Networks and Cross River Partnership, with funding from the UK's Office for Low Emission Vehicles.
Most recently, we announced another partnership with the firm ARRIVAL to develop a pilot fleet of 35 electric delivery vehicles to be trialed in London and Paris. These zero tailpipe emission, lightweight composite vehicles have a battery range of more than 240 kilometers, which is significantly higher than other EVs currently in service.
In our new Sustainability Progress Report you can read more about how we are using our 110 years of logistics expertise, forging global partnerships, and exploring how our business can continue contributing to a better world.
You can see the full-length version of this story here.
|
Featured Stories
We chose a few favorites from our Longitudes blog for you
Join Juan Perez, UPS Chief Information and Engineering Officer, as he takes a closer look at how UPS is bringing the global smart logistics network to life… Read more
Major European cities have become a testing ground for the next phase of city delivery… Read more
Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton (LVMH) is changing its business model to meet two of the 21st century's greatest challenges: e-commerce and urbanization… Read more
|
News
Here are a few highlights to keep you up-to-date
These modular, lightweight, commercial EVs have zero tailpipe emissions, 150-mile battery range, advanced safety features, and they are adorable… Read more
This new $130 Million investment includes five custom-built, on-site compressed natural gas (CNG) fueling stations and more than 700 new CNG vehicles for UPS's alternative fleet… Read more
With potential inventory reductions of 20-50%, and the ability to reach 80% of U.S. hospital beds and surgery centers within four hours for critical shipments, this data-based collaboration brings sustainability to the forefront of healthcare… Read more
|
In Case You Missed It
Crystal Lassiter, UPS Senior Director of Global Sustainability, and Adam Vitarello, Optoro President and Co-Founder, discussed the challenges of e-commerce and sustainable reverse logistics at Sustainable Brands '18 in Vancouver.
In a recent article in the Stanford Social Innovation Review, Tamara Barker shares insights on how collaboration and technology are allowing us to deliver a brighter future for cities around the world.
|
| This publication was created to bring you sustainability insights and stories that we hope will inspire you. A new issue will be provided every few months. We welcome your comments and ideas. Drop us a line: sustainability@ups.com. |
|
